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MS SQL Server

A primary key is simply a candidate key labelled as the ‘primary’ (see more in A Key to Keys), and they are enforced by the same mechanism in Sql Server – the unique index. We can query the system tables to get a quick list of these.

Viewing execution plans is useful for troubleshooting queries and stored procedures. But sometimes the query or stored procedure takes a long time to run, or you cannot run it yourself because it modifies data.

You can view these plans by pulling them from the plan cache. SQL Server provides a way to do this:

UPDATE 7/18/2016 – When I first wrote this, I thought that this would show the actual execution plans. I have since learned that this shows the estimated execution plans. Hopefully some readers may still find it useful.(more…)

This is a query to view all current activity on the database server (assuming you have the proper permissions). You can see who is connected, if they have any open transactions, if they are blocked or blocking, and what exactly they are executing. (more…)